The challenges are endless, the possibilities immeasurable, and the payback divine.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Agave Nectar

Recently, a friend gave me a bottle of agave nectar, saying how much she loved it. I haven't opened it, but did do some research out of curiosity. Turns out it has more fructose than HFCS.Since I'm still recuperating and not up to doing much yet, here's the whole reprint:

The short answer to that
reader’s question is simple: agave nectar is not a “natural sweetener.” Plus,
it has more concentrated fructose in it than high fructose corn syrup. Now, let’s get into the details.

Agave Nectar Is Not A
Natural Sweetener

Once upon a time, I picked
up a jar of “Organic Raw Blue Agave Nectar” at my grocery store. It was the
first time I’d ever seen the stuff in real life, and the label looked
promising. After all, words like “organic,” “raw,” and “all natural” should
mean something. Sadly, agave nectar is neither truly raw, nor is it all
natural.

Based on the labeling, I
could picture native peoples creating their own agave nectar from the wild
agave plants. Surely, this was a traditional food, eaten for thousands of
years. Sadly, it is not.

Native Mexican peoples do
make a sort of sweetener out of the agave plant. It’s called miel de agave, and
it’s made by boiling the agave sap for a couple of hours. Think of it as the
Mexican version of authentic Canadian maple syrup.

But this is not what most
so-called “agave nectar” is. According to one popular agave nectar
manufacturer, “Agave nectar is a newly created sweetener, having been developed
in the 1990s.” In a recent article now posted on the Weston A. Price
foundation’s website, Ramiel Nagel and Sally Fallon Morell write,

Agave “nectar” is not
made from the sap of the yucca or agave plant but from the starch of the giant
pineapple-like, root bulb. The principal constituent of the agave root is
starch, similar to the starch in corn or rice, and a complex carbohydrate
called inulin, which is made up of chains of fructose molecules.Technically a
highly indigestible fiber, inulin, which does not taste sweet, comprises about
half of the carbohydrate content of agave.

The process by which agave
glucose and inulin are converted into “nectar” is similar to the process by
which corn starch is converted into HFCS. The agave starch is subject to an
enzymatic and chemical process that converts the starch into a fructose-rich
syrup—anywhere from 70 percent fructose and higher according to the agave
nectar chemical profiles posted on agave nectar websites.

Compare that to the typical
fructose content of high fructose corn syrup (55%)!

In a different article, Rami
Nagel quotes Russ Bianchi, managing director and CEO of Adept Solutions, Inc.,
a globally recognized food and beverage development company, on the
similarities between agave nectar and high fructose corn syrup:

They are indeed made
the same way, using a highly chemical process with genetically modified
enzymes. They are also using caustic acids, clarifiers, filtration chemicals
and so forth in the conversion of agave starches into highly refined fructose
inulin that is even higher in fructose content than high fructose corn syrup.

So there you have it. Agave
nectar is not traditional, is highly refined, and actually has more
concentrated fructose than high-fructose corn syrup. It is not a “natural”
sweetener. Thus far, the evidence definitely points toward the conclusion:
Agave Nectar = Bad.

“But,” you ardent agave
nectar enthusiasts say, “agave nectar has a low glycemic index. I’m a diabetic,
and it’s the only sweetener I can use!”

What’s wrong with fructose?

First, we need to clarify
something. Concentrated fructose is not found in fruit, or anywhere else in
nature. When the sugar occurs in nature, it is often called “levulose” and is
accompanied by naturally-occurring enzymes, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and
fruit pectin.Concentrated
fructose, on the other hand, is a man-made sugar created by the refining
process. To clarify:

Saying fructose is
levulose is like saying that margarine is the same as butter. Refined fructose
lacks amino acids, vitamins, minerals, pectin, and fiber. As a result, the body
doesn’t recognize refined fructose. Levulose, on the other hand, is [fructose]
naturally occurring in fruits, and is not isolated but bound to other naturally
occurring sugars. Unlike man-made fructose, levulose contains enzymes,
vitamins, minerals, fiber, and fruit pectin. Refined fructose is processed in
the body through the liver, rather than digested in the intestine. Levulose is
digested in the intestine. (source http://www.naturalnews.com/024892_fructose_food_health.html
)

I want you to pay special
attention to those last two sentences, for they are a huge key that will help
unlock the mystery of why fructose is bad for you.

Because fructose is digested
in your liver, it is immediately turned into triglycerides or stored body fat.
Since it doesn’t get converted to blood glucose like other sugars, it doesn’t
raise or crash your blood sugar levels. Hence the claim that it is safe for
diabetics.

But it isn’t.

That’s because fructose
inhibits leptin levels — the hormone your body uses to tell you that you’re
full. In other words, fructose makes you want to eat more. Besides contributing
to weight gain, it also makes you gain the most dangerous kind of fat.

This has been verified in
numerous studies. The most definitive one was released just this past year in
the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The full study is available online, but
for the sake of space I’m including Stephan’s (of Whole Health Source fame)
summary here:

The investigators divided
32 overweight men and women into two groups, and instructed each group to drink
a sweetened beverage three times per day. They were told not to eat any other
sugar. The drinks were designed to provide 25% of the participants’ caloric
intake. That might sound like a lot, but the average American actually gets
about 25% of her calories from sugar! That’s the average, so there are people
who get a third or more of their calories from sugar. In one group, the drinks
were sweetened with glucose, while in the other group they were sweetened with
fructose.

After ten weeks, both
groups had gained about three pounds. But they didn’t gain it in the same
place. The fructose group gained a disproportionate amount of visceral fat,
which increased by 14%! Visceral fat is the most dangerous type; it’s
associated with and contributes to chronic disease, particularly metabolic
syndrome, the quintessential modern metabolic disorder (see the end of the post
for more information and references). You can bet their livers were fattening
up too.

The good news doesn’t end
there. The fructose group saw a worsening of blood glucose control and insulin
sensitivity. They also saw an increase in small, dense LDL particles and
oxidized LDL, both factors that associate strongly with the risk of heart
attack and may in fact contribute to it. Liver synthesis of fat after meals
increased by 75%. If you look at table 4, it’s clear that the fructose group
experienced a major metabolic shift, and the glucose group didn’t. Practically
every parameter they measured in the fructose group changed significantly over
the course of the 9 weeks. It’s incredible.

Back to our original
question — Agave Nectar: Good or Bad?

The conclusion is clear.
Agave nectar is bad for you. It’s not traditional, not natural, highly refined,
and contains more concentrated fructose than high fructose corn syrup.

About Me

This blog has turned into “Living Along the Creek” for my life here now includes much more than just raising healthy vegetables and fruits. I’m learning to cure and preserve meats (from bacon and ham to salumi) and to make many kinds of cheese to round out my homegrown diet.
I have worn many hats in my lifetime; I’ve been a passive solar home-builder, a marketing executive, a garden writer, a medical researcher, renovated houses, raised Arabian horses, and worked in open-heart surgery. I'm interested in far too many things to do a single-topic blog!
My interests include Self-sufficiency; Sustainability; High Brix / Nutrient Dense Foods; growing more of what I eat, eating (and preserving) what I grow. Learning what's good for my body/health, and what isn't.
I'm a Seeker hoping to become a Wise Woman someday.
This blog is not supported by any advertising or special-interest groups.
Contact me: darius at 2footalligator dot com

If you appreciate this blog, please donate! Your donations help make many things possible, including the purchase of books like the 2 volume set of Edible Forest Gardens so that I may continue to research and pass along information to you.